TAMPA, FL — After 100 days living underwater in a 100-square-foot fixed habitat and laboratory in the Florida Keys, Dr. Joseph Dituri resurfaced Friday at 10:30 a.m. as the first human to live more than three months beneath the surface of the ocean.
The University of South Florida associate professor, former military diver and longtime researcher into the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to heal traumatic brain injuries, ventured into the underwater lab created by the Marine Resources Development Foundation on March 1.
On May 13, 73 days later, Dituri set the world’s record for living underwater as the world watched on a live Zoom feed.
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While he said breaking the world’s record is an achievement he’s proud to claim, it wasn’t the reason he entered the underwater habitat.
The admittedly unorthodox researcher had more work to do, and opted to spend another 27 days in self-imposed isolation.
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Dr. Deep Dive’s Research
Dituri became interested in researching the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy while serving in the U.S. Navy for 28 years as a saturation diving officer.
During that time, he said he got to know a number of veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries that left them with significant cognitive, behavioral and communications disabilities.
According to the National Institutes of Health, there’s no effective treatment for a serious traumatic brain injury. The NIH’s National Center for Biotechnology Information said, while hyperbaric oxygen therapy has proven useful for people who have suffered a stroke, its effect on TBI patients is unproven.
Dituri is determined to make the National Institutes of Health eat those words.
After retiring in 2012 as a Navy commander, the first thing Dituri did was abandon the military buzz cut he wore for 28 years and allow his hair grow to his shoulders. Then he enrolled at USF in Tampa with his sights set on earning his doctorate in biomedical engineering.
With his newly minted doctoral degree in hand, Dituri set out to prove that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help reverse the damage caused by a traumatic brain injury.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment, usually while laying in a round clear plastic tube.
Dituri became familiar with hyperbaric chambers because of their well-established use for treating decompression sickness suffered by scuba divers.
Hyperbaric chambers have also been successfully used to treat bubbles of air in blood vessels (known as an arterial gas embolism), brain abscesses, severe anemia, burns, sudden deafness and vision loss, carbon monoxide poisoning, crushing injuries and wounds that won’t heal due to diabetes, gangrene, radiation and severe skin and bone infections.
And here is where the opinion of the world-famous Mayo Clinic diverges from the National Institutes of Health. The Mayo Clinic, like Dituri, believes hyperbaric oxygen therapy can also benefit patients with TBIs.
Related: World Record For Living Underwater Broken By Florida Professor
Traumatic brain injuries are caused by a violent blow or jolt to the head, or by a bullet or shattered piece of skull penetrating the brain, usually as a result of a car or motorcycle crash, a fall, a sports-related injury, being struck on the head with a blunt object or, most common in veterans, from a blast or explosion.
When these injuries occur, the brain violently bounces around inside the skull, damaging the brain tissue and causing bruising, bleeding and the tearing of nerve fibers.
After the initial impact, the brain undergoes a delayed trauma and begins swelling, pushing against the skull and reducing the flow of oxygen. This secondary injury is often more damaging than the primary injury.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.5 to 2 million people suffer TBIs each year, and about 190 Americans die from TBI-related injuries every day.
Between 2000 and 2017, more than 375,000 members of the military were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Can Help
The traditional treatments for TBIs include rehabilitation, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy; anti-seizure drugs and surgery.
All of these therapies might help the patient regain some of his or her ability to move or speak, but they won’t reverse the damage from a TBI.
Dituri believes hyperbaric oxygen therapy has the potential to heal brain injuries.
In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the air pressure is increased two to three times higher than normal air pressure. Under these conditions, the lungs can take in much more oxygen than they could breathing pure oxygen at a normal air pressure.
This extra oxygen helps fight bacteria. But, more importantly, it triggers the release of growth factors and stem cells, which Dituri said can reverse the effects of a TBI.
In the past decade, Dituri has earned a reputation as a hyperbaric medicine researcher, pioneering a non-pharmaceutical brain injury recovery program based on hyperbaric oxygen and other therapies at the clinic he founded, Undersea Oxygen Clinic at 701 N. West Shore Blvd., Tampa.
“I’m driven by years of military service and a deep love for those who have shed blood in the same sand,” Dituri said.
Living underwater 24/7 gave him the opportunity to further his research on the physiological and psychological benefits of compression on human health as well as become his own guinea pig. While undersea, Dituri breathed in only compressed air, which prevented water from rising and entering the lab.
In the days to come, he will submit to in-depth medical examinations by a team of 12 doctors to learn more about the effects of living underwater on the human body and how the body functions in extreme environments. They will conduct routine testing of Dituri’s brain waves, heart rate, blood pressure, ear pressure, urine, oxygen saturation and muscle measuring.
Dituri said he’s already made some discoveries:
He also studied how the human body and mind reacts to, or copes with, being in an isolated, confined extreme environment for an extended period of time, although, truth be told, he wasn’t entirely alone for 100 days.
More than 60 people visited Dituri undersea, including his mother and brother, 26 Marine Lab young explorers, and a handful of scientists.
Furthermore, when Dituri wasn’t conducting research, he pursued another passion: education. While living underwater for 14 weeks, he virtually interacted and taught more than 5,500 students in 15 countries, including Abu Dhabi, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Ireland, Korea, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.
“To explore anything new always results in personal and professional discoveries,” said Dituri. “This experience has changed me in important ways, and my greatest hope is that I have inspired a new generation of explorers and researchers to push past all boundaries.”
In addition, Dituri managed to teach all his regular biomedical engineering classes at USF virtually.
USF President Rhea Law said she couldn’t help but be impressed by his dedication.
“The University of South Florida community has been closely following Joseph Dituri’s journey, and it is clear that his passion for science is leading to significant contributions in the biomedical engineering field,” said Law. “I thank him for continuing to educate and inspire future generations.”
Dituri plans to share his mission findings and research at the World Extreme Medical Conference in Scotland in November.
He said his next adventure will take him into space.
In September, Dituri will participate in a flight on a modified airliner to experience zero gravity and research its possible health benefits. This will serve as preparation for his ultimate goal of traveling to space in 2026.
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